Red and Black: The Identity Crisis
by Silverprint
Summary: AU. Twins. Their family torn apart by Voldemort. Harry, dead to the world, was raised secretly in Bulgaria by Regulus Black. Ryan, a celebrated hero, was raised by Sirius Black. What happens when the two are brought together by the Triwizard Tournament?
1. Prologue

This story is being co-written by Talons and Shadow (nicknames not fanfiction accounts).

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or plot from Harry Potter.

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><p>The night wet and windy, two children dressed as pumpkins waddling across the square and the shop windows covered in paper spiders, in him that he always knew on these occasions ... Not anger ... that was for weaker souls than he ... but triumph, yes ... He had waited for this, he had hoped for it...<p>

"Nice costume, mister!"

He saw the small boy's smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his pained face: Then the child turned and ran away ... Beneath the robe he fingered the handle of his wand ... One simple movement and the child would never reach his mother ... but unnecessary, quite unnecessary...

And along a new and darker street he moved, and now his destination was in sight at last, the Fidelius Charm broken, though they did not know it yet ...

And he made less noise than the dead leaves slithering along the pavement as he drew level with the dark hedge, and steered over it ...

They had not drawn the curtains; he saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the two small children in their blue pajamas. The children were laughing and trying to catch the smoke, to grab it in their small fists ...

A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up this sons and handed him to the mother. He threw his wand down upon the sofa and stretched, yawning... The gate creaked a little as he pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear. His white hand pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open.

He was over the threshold as James came sprinting into the hall. It was easy, too easy, he had not even picked up his wand ...

"Lily, take the boys and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!" Hold him off, without a wand in his hand! ... He laughed before casting the curse ...

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushed against the wall, it made the banisters glow like lighting rods, and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut ...

He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear ...

He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in ... She had no wand upon her either ... How stupid they were, and how trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends, that weapons could be discarded even for moments... He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave of his wand ... and there she stood, the boys in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her sons into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding them from sight she hoped to be chosen instead ...

"Not my boys, not Harry and Ryan, please not my boys!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now."

"Not them, please no, take me, kill me instead -"

"This is my last warning -"

"Not my boys! Please ... have mercy ... have mercy ... Not Harry! Not Ryan! Please - I'll do anything ..."

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

He could have forced her away from the crib, but it seemed more prudent to finish them all ...

The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband. The boys had not cried all this time. The red haired boy sat quietly sucking his thumb not interested in what was going on around him, while the black haired one stood, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruder's face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking that it was his father who hid beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing -

He pointed the wand very carefully into this boy's face: He didn't know which child was the one inexplicable danger, so he had better kill them both. He never liked children anyway.

The child began to cry: It had seen that he was not James. He did not like it crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage -

"Avada Kedavra!"

And then he knew no more.

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><p>I know most of this chapter was Rowling's from the seventh book, but we wanted an introduction to the story and this was the best one we could come up with. Thank You for reading!<p>

Talons: If you don't like it go away.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

This is cowritten with Shadow and Talons.

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><p><em>Italicized - Bulgarian<em>

Regulus' POV

Regulus appeared on the wet, windy street in Godric's Hollow just in time to see the bright flash of green light in the upstairs window of the Potter home. Wrenching open the door, he took the stairs two at a time, thankful that Peter Pettigrew was such a loose lipped parasite. He had to stop the Dark Lord from killing those boys. Severus told him about the prophecy that one of the twins would be the one to kill the Dark Lord. He ran into the brightly colored room seconds before the green curse rebound from Harry and the world exploded. Regulus was blasted back into the wall and knocked unconscious for a few moments.

When he awoke there was a sharp pain in the back of his head. Shaking it off, he ran into the nursery. Relief washed over him as he saw both boys alive, the red haired one, Ryan, was bleeding from a cut on his cheek. Looking outside he saw his brother Sirius pull up on his motor bike and stare shocked at the destruction of the house of his two friends. Regulus quickly picked up Harry and disapparated.

He appeared outside the gate of Prince Manor where his best friend waited anxiously for his return.

"If I had known you were going to run off like a bloody Gryffindor-"

"Not the time Severus," interrupted Regulus as he shifted Harry, who was now asleep, to his other side.

The movement grabbed Snape's attention, he stared at the child for a moment before asking, "Is that Harry Potter? Is he the child from the prophecy? What happened to Lily?"

"Can we do this inside Severus?" asked Regulus grimacing in pain. Snape turned around and walked into the house, holding the door open for Regulus. They walked into Snape's living room and Regulus placed the sleeping child on the couch before sitting down. Snape swept over to his work bench and started sorting through bottles for a pain reliever.

"What happened?" asked Snape.

"Sit down."

"I prefer to remain standing."

"Lily's dead." Snape's fits clenched and his face crumpled in pain.

"I figured as much."

"Severus-"

"Damn it! Shut up." The bottle Snape was holding shattered and he hissed in pain as its contents burned his hands. Snape stalked over to the sink and washed his hand off. He stalked back to his work bench dried off his hand and continued looking for the potion. It was several minutes before anything else was spoken.

"What of the Dark Lord?" asked Snape tersely.

Regulus sighed, "The curse rebounded from Harry and there was an explosion. I don't know what happened after that. I doubt he is dead, we know he has more than one horcrux."

Snape turned and gave Regulus the pain reliever he had been searching for, "Here, this will help your head. Have you found out how to destroy the locket yet?"

Regulus downed the pain reliever with a sigh of relief. "No, the blasted thing just won't die. Kreacher and I have tried everything."

Snape sat down across from him, "Are you still having memory problems?"

"Not as bad as before, the potion you made for me is helping."

"You are lucky your house-elf had enough sense to come to me. Another hour and that poison would have completely destroyed your nervous system."

"I'm lucky the Dark Lord thinks so little of house-elves, there was no enchantments to keep Kreacher from disapparating me out," said Regulus. Just then the two were interrupted by Harry's cries.

"I hate children," groaned Snape pinching the bridge of his nose, "Make the blasted thing shut up."

Regulus walked over and picked up the screaming child, desperately trying to soothe him.

"Why did you bring it here anyway?" asked Snape once Harry quieted down.

"Harry is the child of the prophecy; he will defeat the Dark Lord. He needs to be protected until he's strong enough to protect himself, and he needs to be trained to take on his destiny."

**13 Years Later**

The grey clouds threatened to rain, as anxious parents said good-bye to their children, each torn between feelings of hope and fear that their child might be chosen as the champion in the upcoming tournament. The children talked excitedly to each other of upcoming adventures as they loaded their luggage onto the ship and waved goodbye to their parents.

"Stay safe, and remember everything we taught you," Regulus said.

Harry gave Regulus a hug before asking, "You'll come visit me, right, even if I'm not a champion?"

"You're always a champion to me," the seriousness lasted only a moment before the both of them broke out laughing.

"Seriously dad, what am I going to do without you for a year?"

"You'll be fine, don't worry, just have fun…. And don't do anything really stupid that you'll regret for the rest of your life."

"Thanks I'll make sure to do that," Harry said rolling his eyes.

"Listen if you are ever in trouble or need help just go to Severus I'm sure he'd be willing to help. And besides Victor promised he'd look out for you."

"I don't need someone to look out for me, dad," replied Harry.

Regulus, seeing that his son was still worried put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Everything will be fine Harry. Just be careful with what you say and reveal."

Just then a thin, dark, and sallow-skinned young man, with a large curved nose and thick black eyebrows ran up.

"_Come on Harry, we are going to miss the ship," _the boy said in a deep, gruff voice.

"Okay, I love you dad." Harry gave Regulus a hug before leaving with Victor Krum to get on the ship. Regulus sighed as he watched the boy whom he had come to love as his own son chatting happily with Victor. He knew that this trip to Hogwarts could ruin everything he had risked his life for.

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><p>Thanks for reading! Please Review!<p> 


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